Caring to us meant, caring for customers, employees and shareholders, and what we called, organizational caring.

Learning was about development and innovation.

Achieving to us was accountability, action orientation and teamwork.

Sharing involved giving away knowledge and encouraging, appreciating others.

Social sensitivity was thought as commitment and integrity.

The new set of MindTree values were easy to remember as they lent themselves to the acronym CLASS. Far more arduous would be the task of creating a common dictionary, drive alignment and get these institutionalized. In parts we knew that. In some parts, we did not know what we did not know.

Internalization of values is not about top management articulation and wallpaper. It happens one day at a time, one person at a time and does not come without moments of truth. One such moment of truth came when a very senior person in the company had left an audit trail of minor fiscal irregularities. As soon as it surfaced, we met as a management team and decided that irrespective of the person’s seniority and the consequences to the business, we would ask the person to resign.

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Subroto Bagchi is co-founder and Chief Operating Officer for MindTree Consulting (P) Ltd. The "Making of the MindTree" is told in the first person by Subroto Bagchi. In condensed form, it was published by Business World, filmed by InfiniTV, and aired on CNBC, IT Hour. Websites: www.mindtree.com & www.mindtree.com/subrotobagchi